Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Failure as success

The premise of this article, to which I agree wholeheartedly, is that Obama's foreign policy strategy makes sense if you understand that his goal is to undermine America's influence and power around the globe. Writing in the WSJ, Norman Podhoretz states,

Yet if this is indeed the pass to which Mr. Obama has led us—and I think
it is—let me suggest that it signifies not how incompetent and
amateurish the president is, but how skillful. His foreign policy, far
from a dismal failure, is a brilliant success as measured by what he
intended all along to accomplish. The accomplishment would not have been
possible if the intention had been too obvious. The skill lies in how
effectively he has used rhetorical tricks to disguise it.

Two things: first, astute viewers of the political sphere have thought this since before he was elected. And second, astute viewers think the same forces drive his domestic philosophy as well. Great article by Podhoretz, a definite must read.[ht: glenn reynolds]